MLK Labor

QUESTIONNAIRE:

Please answer the following questions using 300 words or less. 

Standing with Workers: 

Across our country and in our region, workers are organizing and taking action. Can we count on you to join workers in taking public actions such as on picket lines when called upon? Will you support workers’ right to organize even if it comes to your own staff?

A: Yes. I would be happy to join workers in public action. I will support workers rights to organize, especially when it comes to my own staff. I believe in the power of workers to organize, collectively bargain, and demand dignity on the job.

I’d like to go further and won’t just give performative platitudes for soundbytes at picket lines. I’ll do my best to the full extent of my ability as councilmember to use city policy to punish union busting activities, support mandated union labor where possible, and expand collective bargaining rights anywhere I can. 

I fully recognize the labor movement is what built the middle class. I want to help be an active part of rebuilding it. 

Public Dollars for Public Growth:

We believe that public dollars should be used to improve the lives of people in our community. How will you ensure public dollars are used to create public goods and grow good union jobs? Will you commit to not outsource public jobs to non-union contractors and to work with unions to create career opportunities for people in our community including Labor Harmony Agreement (LHA) and Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) policies that help ensure a living wage and dignity at work?

A:

I also believe public dollars should be used for public good.

I’ll spend city money on Union labor at Union rates. Where union contractors are available, they’ll be where the RFPs are sent. I won’t just commit to not outsourcing public jobs, I’ll also commit to work towards converting any currently outsourced jobs to in-house union positions. I’ll also look towards providing incentives for businesses in the city to do the same. 

I’ll also support adding teeth to agreements made with employers who violate terms with triple backpay fines. 

Housing, Density, & Transit: 

As a labor council, our top priority is to ensure working class people are able to live in the communities where they work, send their kids to school, and lead their lives. What will you do to diversify our region’s housing options while creating density and the transit access we need to mitigate our climate impact?

A: This is a priority of why I’m running. I will work to

1: Fight people treating our housing as an asset class: by taxing vacant units. Taxing 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and etc homes, and proposing and supporting a ban on corporate landlords buying single family housing. 

2: I want to work towards social owned housing to create permanently affordable housing options, not just give incentives to developers to create temporary affordable housing that just becomes market rate again in a few years. 

3: Open up zoning to ban single family home only zoning

4: Work towards free transit (ORCA) passes for all residents. 

5: connect protected bike lanes that go to major job centers

Community-Minded Economic Recovery: 

Past recessions have demonstrated that fiscal austerity slows economic recovery and hurts working people most, often in the form of cuts and layoffs. As you navigate budgetary uncertainty and face down significant deficits, how will you collaborate with Labor to balance budgets and identify new progressive revenue sources while keeping working people and racial equity in mind?

A: I’ll be doing this by taxing the assets that ultra wealthy people hoard, and lightening taxes on what working people need to live. 

The progressive revenue sources I would like to see are:

A tax on vacant homes

A tax on vacant storefronts

A tax on private docks

A tax on multiple homes

A tax on mansions that cost more than 3 million which exempts working class homeowners

I would actually love to get more people working, and a large problem of why some people are kept out is childcare - I’d like to get Union Staffed heavily subsidized childcare centers up and running to create jobs and save families money. 

Anti-Racism: 

Our labor movement has committed to becoming an anti racist movement and doing internal work to dismantle our own systems of oppression. As an elected leader, will you commit to partner with labor to dismantle systems of oppression that unjustly impact our members? In what ways do you see racism impact working people and what is one specific action you hope to take to counter systemic oppression in your jurisdiction?

A: Yes. Absolutely. I want to partner with unions, and I will be someone who just says things that sound good. I want to create structural change. I fully believe racism is intertwined with worker exploitation with examples from black workers denied apprenticeships to latina domestic workers paid poverty wages. I see that the majority of janitors in Bellevue are immigrants or POC and want them to be confident in their union contracts. These impacted workers are also usually victims of wage theft. 

To fix this? I believe racism shouldn’t be as cheap as it is. Let’s make it costly for them to hate us. From withholding permits from companies with race-based pay gaps, to getting people confident in reporting labor violations. I’ll do everything I can to support the workers over the corporation. 

Protecting Labor Standards: 

King County boasts some of the nation’s strongest labor standards and some of its highest wages thanks to the efforts of our region’s unions and the enforcement of agencies such as the Seattle Office of Labor Standards and the King County Prosecuting Attorney Office’s Economic Crimes and Wage Theft Division. How will you support efforts to institute new labor standards and to fund the entities responsible for enforcing them so that workers are protected from wage theft and exploitation on the job?

A: In what I do, I’ll be putting labor and workers at the top, front, and center of my list of priorities. I’ll be listening to both, the experts and the workers to do what I can do to support labor and raise labor standards and wages. At every opportunity, I will support efforts to fund entities responsible for enforcing them. Wage theft and exploitation punishment need sharp teeth, I’ll support every measure that sharpens them. 

The jurisdiction you hope to serve is a member of a statewide association (AWC/WSAC/WPPA) that lobbies in the Washington State Legislature. Unfortunately, these associations will frequently oppose new labor standards proposed by Labor organizations and unions. If elected and appointed as the representative to your association, will you commit to bringing a pro-worker voice and raising concerns when associations combat new labor standards?

A:Yes.

Preparing for Extreme Weather:

MLK Labor is committed to transitioning our economy to address the climate crisis and protecting workers and communities from extreme weather hazards such as heat domes, wildfire smoke, freezing and bursting pipes, and power outages caused by strong winds. How will you partner with us to advocate for solutions to these problems while creating good union jobs?

A: We do this by hiring union jobs to address these issues. From firefighting to retrofitting buildings and structures. Both addressing the symptoms and causes of climate change will be done hand-in-hand with union jobs where possible. 

Hardening the community is also not just about investing in combating climate change, it’s also about divesting in what has weakened our community, like the Foreign Private Equity owned PSE that fired all its linemen. I want to support a municipal microgrid to make us less reliant on private equity owned monopolies. I want to support us moving towards municipal networking options to make us less reliant on Comcast. None of that can be done without unions, both of those will create good union jobs. I want to see Bellevue launch a public solar co-op to get union installed solar up. 

And to protect people? Let’s get evictions during wildfires paused so we’re not throwing kids into smoke. Let’s force landlords to weatherize units so renters can spend less on heating and cooling. 

Blog Post Title Two

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.